The 2021 A Lyga, for sponsorship reasons also called Optibet A lyga is the 32nd season of the

A Lyga The A Lyga is the top division of professional football in Lithuania. The A Lyga is an abbreviation of Aukščiausia lyga meaning Highest League. It is organized by Lithuanian Football Federation LFF ( lt, Lietuvos Futbolo Federacija). The Aukš� ...

, the top-tier

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

league of

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

. The season began on 5 March and concluded on 28 November 2021.

Teams

FK Žalgiris Futbolo klubas Žalgiris, commonly known as FK Žalgiris, Žalgiris Vilnius or simply Žalgiris, is a Lithuanian professional football club based in Vilnius. The club competes in the A Lyga, the top flight of Lithuanian football. The club wa ...

started the season as defending champions. None of the 6 last year's teams were relegated, and 4 teams were promoted to A lyga.

Licensing process

In addition to sporting principles of promotion and relegation, the teams and clubs need to pass rigorous licensing process. Because of this, promotion and relegation does not always follow the rights achieved by sporting principle. A total of 12 teams applied for A lyga license: The 6 previous season's teams: :

FK Sūduva Marijampolė FK or fk may refer to: In arts and entertainment: * Flyer Killer, fictional automated robots in the ''Terminator'' film franchise. * Fox Kids, a former American children's television programming block. * Funky Kong, a video game character. Place: ...

FK Kauno Žalgiris Futbolo klubas Kauno Žalgiris (''Football club Kauno Žalgiris'') is a professional Association football, football club based in Kaunas, Lithuania, that competes in the A lyga, the top tier of Lithuania. The club was founded as FM Spyris Kaun ...

FK Panevėžys Futbolo klubas Panevėžys, commonly known as Panevėžys is a Lithuanian football team from the city of Panevėžys. The team was promoted to the Lithuanian A Lyga after the 2018 season, when became winners of 1 Lyga. History The city of Panev ...

FK Banga Gargždai FK Banga Gargždai is a Lithuanian football club from the city of Gargždai. History FK Banga was founded in 1966. During the period from 1966 to 1990, the club was in the Soviet Lithuanian football championship. From 1990, they played in th ...

and

FK Riteriai Futbolo Klubas Riteriai, also known as FK Riteriai or as Riteriai, is a Lithuanian professional association football, football club based in Vilnius. The team has been playing in the top level of Lithuanian football, the A Lyga, since 2014. Until ...

met licensing criteria and received a straight pass to their licenses. Top 4

2020 LFF I Lyga The 2020 LFF I Lyga is the 31st season of the I Lyga, the second tier football league of Lithuania. The season was planned to begin in March, but was delayed to June because of COVID-19 pandemic. The season finished on time on 31 October. Teams T ...

teams: : FK „Nevėžis“ (Kėdainiai), FC „Hegelmann Litauen“ (Kaunas), FK „Jonava“ (Jonava), FC „Džiugas“ (Telšiai) have all applied. FK Nevėžis and FC Hegelmann Litauen got their licenses straight away. FC Džiugas has been granted a license after an appeal. FK Jonava failed to meet all licensing criteria and were not issued a license. The club appealed, the appeal was rejected, then the club requested participation by exception — a method used by

Lithuanian Football Federation The Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF) ( lt, Lietuvos futbolo federacija) is the governing body of football in Lithuania. The Federation is responsible for football development in the country and for the national teams, including the Lithuania ...

to make up numbers in the league after licensing fails. The request was also rejected by LFF council's vote in favour to 6th placed

DFK Dainava Dainavos Futbolo Klubas Dainava, in short, DFK Dainava, is a Lithuanian football club from Alytus. The club was established in 2016 as a phoenix club after FK Dainava Alytus was dissolved in 2014. History Modern DFK Dainava was established after ...

. Other

teams: : FA „Šiauliai“ (Šiauliai), DFK „Dainava“ (Alytus). FA Šiauliai later withdrew from licensing process, claiming that the team is not yet ready for top division football. DFK Dainava failed licensing criteria, however after FK Jonava's failure to meet licensing criteria, DFK Dainava were invited to request participation by exception, and were ultimately promoted to the A lyga. The controversial decision to drop FK Jonava and promote DFK Dainava was justified by the fact that FK Jonava have pending investigation to allegations of match fixing in the 2020 season. The LFF have issued sanctions and fines against three players and the club, however FK Jonava deny allegations of involvement in match fixing in the three matches that are being investigated and have appealed. The LFF have also revealed that a warning letter has been issued to FK Jonava in relation to the team's coach, who has been reportedly involved in match fixing in his previous career.

Changes

FK Nevėžis FK Nevėžis is an association football club from the city of Kėdainiai, Lithuania. Achievements *Three times Lithuanian champion (1966, 1972, 1973). *Twice runner-up (1968, 1969). *Three times won Bronze medals (1967, 1970, 1979). Partici ...

(Kėdainiai),

FC Hegelmann Litauen Futbolo klubas Hegelmann, commonly known as Hegelmann, is a Lithuanian football club located in Kaunas. They play in the A Lyga, the first tier of Lithuanian football. History The club was founded at the beginning of 2009 by Hegelmann Transpor ...

(Kaunas), FC Džiugas (Telšiai) and

(Alytus), the latter three teams promoted to the top-flight for the first time in their history, were promoted from the

2021 competitors

Personnel

Managerial changes

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

As soon as

2020 A Lyga The 2020 A Lyga was the 31st season of the A Lyga, the top-tier football league of Lithuania. The season began on 6 March and was planned to end on 7 November 2020. On 12 March all sports events were postponed for two weeks in the light of the COV ...

season has completed, on 7 November 2020

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

quarantine was reintroduced in Lithuania, and extended several times. At the beginning of February, at the time LFF were building fixtures calendar, the quarantine was set to last until 28 February. It is expected that at the beginning of the championship the matches will take place without spectators. Under the government's proposal, the matches can be attended by 100 spectators when the rate of COVID-19 infections per 100,000 inhabitants in 14 day period will drop below 50. The matches can be attended by 200 spectators when COVID-19 cases will drop below 25. On 4 February infection rate was 395.3. Approaching the start date of the championship, scheduled for 5 March 2021, the clubs performed mandatory COVID-19 testing. Three clubs have reported infections among the players and their fixtures have been postponed. FK Žalgiris reported 7 positive cases of COVID-19, FK Panevėžys - 6, FK Riteriai initially did not reveal the number, but it was later revealed that 19 players and staff were tested positive.

Regular season

The season has kicked off as scheduled on 5 March. Each team will play four matches with all other teams this season.

League table

Fixtures and results

Rounds 1–18

Rounds 19–36

Statistics

Top goalscorers

References

External links

* {{2021–22 in European football (UEFA) LFF Lyga seasons 2021 in Lithuanian football